“Bind thee to me,” I said, looking at the gargoyle. A nimbus of lightning crackled around it now. Its stone face twisted into a gleeful grin.
“Die,” I said in English, the word booming in the air. The gargoyle screamed and spasmed, falling in a tangle of limbs and wings, crashing through the pine’s branches until it slammed into the ground, and broke into pieces that smoked and flared blood red before dissolving. I looked back in the direction of where I’d seen the hooded figure, but there was no one there, now.
I put a heal patch on my wound, then checked on Tully. He breathed, and his pulse was good. Okay, there was nothing for it but to wake him up.
He groaned, and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. His eyes widened when he saw the smoldering stain on the grass, all that was left of the gargoyle. His Seer’s vision would tell him the story.
“I thought the gargoyle was going to kill us, but you managed to destroy it. How?” He looked at me, puzzled.
I hated it when people deliberately distorted the truth, hated it when they baldly rearranged facts to save themselves from the consequences of their own actions, hated it when they omitted certain things. But most of all, I hated it when someone made a naked lie, one that betrayed who they were just to save their own skin.
I didn’t look away or blink. “I was able to use my connection to the ward to bind and destroy it,” I said. My mouth was dry but I didn’t lick my lips or swallow.
“Lucky for us,” he replied. He stared at me, obviously trying to gauge the truth of what I said. After a long moment he nodded. “That must have been some pretty amazing spellcasting that I missed.”
Guilt churned in my stomach, but now wasn’t the time to tell him I used blood magic. There would never be a time, a small voice said inside me. I ignored that voice.
I reached down to help him stand. I pushed the guilt back into my subconscious as far as I could. I hadn’t had any other choice. Tully and I would have been crispy dead if I hadn’t used the blood magic. There hadn’t been time for anything else.
And, I could stop at any time. Really.
“Are you sure you saw someone watching from the sidewalk?” Tully asked me.
We had stood there in the yard for a couple of minutes, catching our breath, and letting the heal patch do its thing on Tully’s wound.
“It was only for a fraction of a second, but, yes,” I said. It struck me then. I’d been a forgetful fool. I’d seen that figure before. When I arrived in Portland, tumbling out of the misplaced teleportal. Then, at the Winter Market.
Tully crossed back to the sidewalk, scanning the area while he walked. I followed in his wake.
“No sign of anyone,” he said after we’d reached the sidewalk.
“I saw him, the same dude in a hoodie I’d seen twice earlier tonight.”
Tully cocked his head. “You didn’t mention it before.”
“There was a lot going on.”
His lips set in a grim line. “Apparently there was, too much in fact to bother mentioning a potential suspect.”
I jabbed a finger up at him. “Listen, mister, I thought it was just a bystander. I had bigger things on my mind.”
“We have to record and log them,” he reminded me.
“I know that!” I shouted. I took a deep breath, lowered my voice. “In case you didn’t notice, it’s just the two of us. We don’t have back up, and we have been running from outbreak to outbreak since I’ve arrived. Things can get a little sloppy. It happens.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Just let me know if you see any other bystanders.”
I bit back a retort. “I will.”
My heart was still pounding when we reached the door to the house.
Tully stared at the stoop, the entryway, and the door. “No more traps or wards,” he pronounced after a moment.
He produced his lockpick and went to work opening the door.
“Three uses?” I asked him, trying to lighten the mood by asking about something minor.
“Yes. I don’t rate anything more than that. Do you?”
The sudden sharpness in his words stung. He looked back to his normal sharp, observant self. Had he seen through my lie about using the ward to destroy the gargoyle?
I made a dismissive noise. “Me? No way.”
He was clearly still angry about my forgetting to mention the figure in the hoodie.
The lock clicked softly.
I tensed.
Things had been piling up like a snowstorm so far. This wasn’t how assignments normally went, but tonight it seemed like everything was happening at triple speed.
I raised my hand to knock on the door, hesitated. It was the polite thing to do, but Therese’s place had been in lockdown mode. What if she were being held hostage? I didn’t want to give any potential captors warning. I opened the door and went in. Tully watched from the doorway.
The inside looked like a cyclone had hit. A mirror that must have hung on the wall facing the doors had fallen and lay shattered on the hardwood floor. In the living room beyond, bookshelves had been overturned, scattering books like leaves across the floor and sofa and chairs. There was no place for a television or stereo. A writing table with drawers sat beside a curtained window in an alcove. The drawers had been opened, obviously rifled.
“Therese?” I called out.
Tully stepped into the entryway, closing the outside door behind him.
“Therese, are you here?” I asked. “It’s Sorcerer-Agents Marquez and Tully.”
Nothing. I looked at Tully with a question in my eyes. He gave a little headshake.
I walked into the living room, and around an overturned chair.
Just past
